Japan was reviewed by the Committee Against Torture at its May session. The Committee
expressed deep concern about many issues, including the conditions of detention of
prisoners on death row, in particular with respect to the unnecessary secrecy and uncertainty
surrounding the execution of prisoners; the use of solitary confinement for prisoners
sentenced to death, some exceeding 30 years; interference with the right to assistance by
legal counsel, including the limited confidential access to a lawyer; and the lack of a
mandatory appeal system for capital cases given that an increasing number of defendants
were convicted and sentenced to death without exercising their right of appeal. The
Committee further urged the government of Japan to ensure that death row inmates are
afforded all the legal safeguards and protections they are entitled to, including by giving
them and their family reasonable advance notice of the scheduled date and time of the
execution and revising the rule of solitary confinement for death row inmates. The Committee
urged the authorities to provide data on death row inmates, disaggregated by sex, age,
ethnicity and offence and to consider the possibility of abolishing the death penalty. 33
At least three new death sentences were imposed for drug trafficking in Laos, where the last
execution was carried out in 1989.
At least two people were executed in secret in Malaysia, one for murder and one for drug
trafficking. At least 76 new death sentences were known to have been imposed, 47 for drugrelated offences. Of those sentenced to death, 37 were foreign nationals, 10 of them women.
There were an estimated 992 people in death row as of end 2013. Four death sentences
were commuted.
Malaysia was reviewed at the UPR on 24 October. In the national report submitted before the
review,34 the government explained it had undertaken a study on comprehensive reform of
administration of criminal justice in Malaysia, including the death penalty. The authorities
agreed to examine a number of recommendations, including to establish a moratorium on the
death penalty with a view to abolition. The government was expected to report to the UN
Human Rights Council in March 2014.
No executions have been carried out in the Maldives since 1954, but 13 new death
sentences were imposed last year. Eighteen people were on death row as of 31 December
and one prisoner had his death sentence commuted for lack of credible evidence. On 2 May
two people were sentenced to death by the Juvenile Court in relation to a murder committed
when they were under 18 years of age. The sentence was under appeal at the end of the year.
Draft legislation aimed at resuming executions was rejected on May.
Mongolia did not carry out any executions for the fourth consecutive year, since the President
established an official moratorium on executions in 2010. No new death sentences were
imposed. A Bill removing the death penalty from national legislation remained pending
before the Mongolian Parliament at the end of the year.
Amnesty International is not aware of any new death sentences in Myanmar. On 2 January
2014 the authorities announced that all remaining death sentences in the country had been
commuted. In October the Lower House of Parliament rejected a motion to debate a proposed
amendment to the 1993 Child Law that would impose the death penalty for the rape of a
child under 16 years.35